One way to avoid having to pop your ears is using a nasal spray.
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chiborgFeb 8 '12 at 18:18

I can pop my ear by just flexing some muscles near the back of my throat. I learned this after I got annoyed by the constant popping when I swallowed and I started eliminating which muscles triggered the popping. This also taught me how to pop my ears on command.
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ratchet freakFeb 8 '12 at 19:04

6 Answers
6

While a full yawn is best, simulating the movement your jaw makes in a yawn is enough to pop your ears (and often simulating a yawn makes a real one happen anyway)

If you have a cold, or if you let the pressure build up a lot it can be difficult to get the eustachian tubes to open, so in those instances I hold my nose, close my mouth and gently try and blow.

This is one you want to try gently, as blowing too hard could actually damage your ear drums, so practice doing it with relaxed cheeks (almost as if you were playing a trumpet.) You can also just try one eardrum at a time, which can make this easier and safer.

this may sound silly, but how do you do that for "one eardrum at a time"?
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Mark MayoFeb 1 '12 at 3:31

1

@MarkMayo - keep one cheek taught while allowing the other to relax and loosen the opening to that eustachian tube only. It gets really easy with practice.
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Rory AlsopFeb 1 '12 at 8:32

This is about as good of an advice as it gets, and included pretty much all techniques that I was taught by my grandmother and later by others. On more sudden pressure changes, such as snorkeling or being in an elevator, I also find simple neck stretching to often do the trick, relieving the pressure build-up. Kneeling for a few seconds then suddenly straightening up can do the same, but people with a tendency to faint easily should best avoid this. To prevent pressure build-up, one can also have mouths open wide for the duration of the ascent/descent, but obviously not while snorkeling LOL. ;
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TildalWaveMar 25 '13 at 9:39

Yawning - as Kate noted, it's pretty easy to induce yawning. Personally, I can usually start yawning after about 20 seconds of just thinking about yawns. If I had a kid with ear pain on a flight, I would simply start talking to them about yawning, and then yawn in their faces - you get the fun of using social engineering to get somebody to yawn, and they get have their ears magically stop hurting!

Swallowing deliberately - while clenching the back of the throat a bit more than usual, I found this to be a pretty effective (and easily repeatable, once you've gotten a drink from the flight attendant) method for draining the fluid from my ear-pipes.

However, I rarely use these techniques any more after mastering the following:

The pinched-nose-blow - the Valsalva mentioned by Kate and others. Pinch the nose, close the mouth, breath out in a quick burst through the nose. HOWEVER - to avoid increasing the pressure in your ears in a counterproductive manner:

Don't actually pinch your nose shut. Pinch it mostly shut. Air
should still be able to escape through both nostrils, just not nearly as easily as normal.

While I have the best luck with quick breaths out, it's important not
to breathe too hard. A bit of practice can help you find the right
amount of pressure before you start to go to far.

I have found the above method to be highly effective without requiring much practice. I've used it quite a bit.

The jaw-wiggle - after years of using the above tricks, I can relieve most pressure by simply flexing the muscles at the back of the jaw slightly while moving my jaw a bit to the right or left.

If you combine this with a quick practiced breath out through the nose (even without pinching), you can relieve pressure in your ears surprisingly effectively.

On a plane ride where I'm doing this for a good stretch of time, I will usually do about 5-6 of these, then stretch my jaw wide in a yawn-like motion, and then go back to the jaw-flexing.

Earaches are awful. Some of the worst pain I've experienced in my life was caused by ear pressure.

Whatever you do, don't do nothing. Don't wait until the pain wakes you up to start relieving the pressure.

Start using any of these techniques (they all do work) as soon as you feel any pressure in your ears, at any time during the flight.

It's a lot easier to keep your head (ears?) above water if you can stop the pressure from escalating.

For prevention, I suggest chewing imaginary gum. Just do exactly what you would do if you had remembered to put gum in your mouth as descent started.

Once I'm in pain (eg I wake up from it, which has happened), I do the Valsava - pinch your nose shut and do just what you'd do to blow your nose. It's up to you how hard you "blow" - start gentle and work up if it's not working. You can feel the pressure equalize and the pain stops.

If you'd rather yawn, it might help to know it's a very contagious word. Most people will scratch themselves if someone else does, or if someone says the word itchy, or just from reading the word itchy (my doctor told me they were actually trained how to ask someone "does it itch?" without scratching themselves.) Yawn is a little less contagious so just reading it might not do the trick, but saying it aloud should work. Failing that, fake a yawn to infect someone near you - their real yawn should trigger one for you.

Update: today I am flying with perhaps the worst cold I have ever had. It is certainly the worst I have flown with. I needed to break out the big guns when it came to clearing one if my ears. As a result I can add two more techniques to this answer. First, especially if you have a cold, full-on blow your nose. This helped a lot. Second, massage the area under your ear (the end of your jaw) with the opposite hand. Move your ear up and down on your head. Combine this with chewing that imaginary gum and swallowing (I had a bottle of water with me) and the ear will clear eventually. Don't give up, keep working at it.

"Under normal circumstances, the human Eustachian tube is closed, but
it can open to let a small amount of air through to prevent damage by
equalizing pressure between the middle ear and the atmosphere.
Pressure differences cause temporary conductive hearing loss by
decreased motion of the tympanic membrane and ossicles of the ear. Various methods of
ear clearing such as yawning, swallowing, or chewing gum, may be used
intentionally to open the tube and equalize pressures. When this
happens, humans hear a small popping sound, an event familiar to
aircraft passengers, scuba divers, or drivers in mountainous regions.

Earplugs. There are many brands, they're cheap and after you've put them in you don't need to worry about doing any facial contortions since they help to automatically relieve pressure. Also obviously cuts back on aircraft engine noise and the sound of yet another excitable/crying child.

Shouldn't earplugs give you pain when pressure changes? Suppose you put in the earplugs when the plane is at a high altitude, then the air pressure between your ear drums and the plugs will be low compared to ground level air pressure. So when the airplane lands, then there will be a pressure difference compared to the air in the eustachian tube, causing the ear drums to bend, thus pain.
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fekleeJan 29 '13 at 17:51

Cabin Pressurisation

This ear pain you experience when landing is usually related to the increase of cabin pressure as the altitude of the plane decreases. This inevitably causes an increase of the pressure of the air trapped inside the inner ear and sinuses, which cause the squeezing, pushing, piercing sensation we all know. Various techniques exist allowing you to equalise the pressure in the inner ear and sinuses.

As a general rule of thumb, you should begin equalising pressure as soon as the first signs of pressure-related discomfort in the inner ear and sinuses arise. Don't wait for the pain level to rise, as this corresponds to an increase in pressure which will need a harder push to equalise. Pushing too hard can cause a plethora of accidents which you most probably want to avoid.

Yawning or Swallowing

First thing you should try is yawning or swallowing. Both movements contribute to a slight opening of the Eustachian tube, which can help in releasing pressure in the inner-ear and sinuses.

Marcante-Odaglia or Frenzel Manoeuvre

One valid, and safer, alternative to Valsalva is the Frenzel Manoeuvre. This is performed as follows:

Pinch your nose

Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth

Swallow

The Frenzel manoeuvre is safer than Valsalva because it does not cause the same large increase of intraocular pressure. Moreover, this manoeuvre does not inhibit the venous return to the heart, which is the main cause of the cardiac problems related to the Valsalva manoeuvre.